Alex de Minaur has savoured his best win on the Roland Garros clay, adamant the five-hour wait to earn it in the Parisian cold and drizzle was testament to his new harder-edged mentality and clay-court nous.

The Australian number one and his young American hot-shot opponent, Alex Michelsen, had to hang around for an age, including a false start when they actually came on to Court Simmone Mathieu and were dragged off again before even getting the chance to warm up.

But when they finally did get going, with de Minaur wearing a thermal undershirt to keep out the cold on a damp, miserable day, he still lit up Roland Garros’s most beautiful “garden” court with his 6-1, 6-0, 6-2 demolition job on the 19-year-old, who had blitzed him on a hard court in Los Cabos in April.

“It wasn’t easy out there today. Obviously a long day, stop, starting. More than anything mentally, having to deal with cold and rain in your face. Just had to make sure I had good mentality today. That’s probably the most important thing,” de Minaur said.

“I feel like every time I come here to Paris, it’s raining. I can remember very few times where I feel like I’ve played a hot day here, and I remember plenty of these types of matches, sadly.

“But I knew what to expect. I was ready. I had my undershirt thermal layering on. I was ready for a battle in the cold and rain.”